I was utterly lost and confused. I had come out of the gate running, full of faith, full of the Word, full of innovation, energy, and passion. Yet, the road had been fast, intense, and bumpy, and I had lost myself along the way. I had lost my path, my energy, my enthusiasm, my joy. I had lost myself.

I was in a season of lament, asking, “Where did I take the wrong direction? I thought it was you, God. How could something that seemed so good turn out to be so bad?” And here I found myself utterly lost and confused, a walking shell, comprised of endless obligations without margin or peace.

Though I felt numb most days, a smile was painted on my face as a mask. Inside of this large persona, I felt tiny, even miniscule. I felt like I was trapped in the belly of the whale. I felt lifeless, used, misunderstood, and treated poorly. I felt lost. And all the noise in my life, mainly fear, seemed to be drowning out the voice of God – or at least my ability to hear Him. Instead, my mind was racing, filled with unhealthy, recycled thoughts. I needed a way out of this place, but then again, this place I had found myself in was unfamiliar. Unacquainted with where I was, it was hard to know what direction to go to get out.

One day, I brought our children to our favorite park, one where we had experienced carefree days before. The sun was out, and the surrounding trees provided shade and a delightful breeze. It was gorgeous. It was peaceful. Peace was a rare commodity those days. It felt familiar, yet from earlier days. It was here that I heard from God. He broke through my pride, my fear, and my frozenness. He spoke words of life.

I felt the Lord say to me, “What do you do when you lose something?… You retrace your steps. You go back to where you left it, and you reclaim it. Then you call your friends to celebrate.”

This was LIFE giving! I knew it was the Lord speaking within me, guiding me to the beginning of a journey towards healing, by taking me back to the place I had lost myself. Though I had known I was missing something, I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what I was missing and didn’t know if I would ever find it until this point. (I think of a verse from a John Mayer song that says, “Something’s missing, And I don’t know how to fix it… And I don’t know what it is.” I had been in this place for awhile.)

The Lord knew what was wrong, what eluded me, what was missing. He always knows. And, in His loving kindness, He pointed me to Luke 15:8-10 that day and showed me I was the lost coin.

“…Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

I had lost myself along the way – lost myself to pride and fear of man. God wanted to bring me back to the beginning to remind me who I am, who He created me to be. He wanted me to surrender, to lay down my brokenness, and to repent for trying to go it on my own, so I could walk on the path He has paved for me – not the path paved by man, or success or myself, but the path He had carved out for me. After all, it is only when we are walking on the path He has laid for us that we will truly be who we were created to be and find fulfillment. His plans for us are far better than our creative brains could imagine.

Does this resonate with you? Have you lost yourself? If you have, I suggest you start looking. Look to God to show you the way. Ask Him what you lost. Ask Him to help you retrace your steps to find out what you left behind, where you took the wrong fork in the road, and to help you reclaim it.

When you lay down your garbled, twisted road map, surrendering to Him, it is amazing to see how He provides clarity, revelation, and a way out! He sweeps us up in His arms, bandages us, heals us, and sets us back on the right path, the one He had established for us.

I pray that, as you journey towards healing, the Lord shows you where you lost yourself and reclaims you for His purposes to come to pass in your life!

Hope. It is the light that flickers deep inside, fueling us through the hard times, the seemingly catastrophic. Hope trusts there is light at the other end of the tunnel, a positive outcome on the other side of the investment or the journey.

We need hope to survive, to power through, to wage war, to keep pushing through the tunnel, and to continue investing our energy. We must hold on to it, no matter what the diagnosis, prognosis or the news reports. Those who lose hope are in a dangerous situation. We must value our lives as creations of God, made in His image, by fighting to maintain our hope against all odds.

What is “Hope”? def.

• a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
• a person or thing that may help or save someone
• grounds for believing that something good may happen.

Let me ask you:

• On what are you placing your hope – your expectation, your trust, your beliefs?
• Who are you trusting to save you, to pull you out of this situation?

Where we place our Hope is most paramount, especially these days and in the days to come. If Hope is such a powerful life force, we must use wisdom and prudence in where we place our hope. We mustn’t trust just anyone or any situation we see with the naked eye.

• What is your source of hope?
• Who is your source of hope?

If you place your hope in the stock market, the job market, in politicians, medical professionals, clients, customers, others, yourself… your hope will certainly wain. The projections aren’t always up, and the prognosis might even be consistently down. But these are unreliable places to put our trust. They are guided by finite, limited people. We mustn’t connect our ships to them, because as they wain, we will wain, and these are a shifting target by the hour.

We NEED hope. We must place our hope in the trusted source, and we must guard our hope by detaching from hopeless situations and unreliable sources, those that blow like reeds in the wind.

There is just one trusted, reliable source — one untainted leader, person, and God; one “economy” that is unwavering: God Himself and His Kingdom, are unshifting, never-changing, more powerful than any person or situation.

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1). Only God has the ultimate veto, the ability to cease wars, expose darkness, overthrow evil, provide restoration, bring healing, turn the trajectory of your accounts, and heap endless good upon good on you. Only He fully has good in store for you, no hidden agendas, for those who follows Him and seeks Him.

“No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause” (Psalm 25:3). You can trust Him! You can solidly, confidently place your hope in Him!

If you are beginning to give up hope, I beg you to HOLD ON! We NEED hope. You NEED hope. Never give up hope! Simply reassess where you draw your Hope, and anchor your trust upon the only truly reliable source of hope: God Himself.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans‬ ‭15:13).‬ ‭

Once we shift our trust off of the shifting targets and sinking sand, and we anchor all of our hope in the Lord, then we will experience the joy and the peace we were so missing. Then we can exchange our insecurity for confidence and for power.

Hold on to hope. How? Hold on to God. Trust that, despite everything else you hear, He is good, and He has good for your life – even better than you could possibly imagine right now. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20)!

God is bigger than the evil, far brighter than the darkness. He always wins! And, knowing that He is working out good for you behind the scenes, simply rest, knowing your hope is secure because you have trusted the reliable source for all good things.

Strength. It’s the characteristic that has defined you. You work out, eat well, build muscle. You are sharp. You have received an education. You read, ask questions and receive answers. You are experienced. You have become a master in you area of gifting, advising those younger. You may be financially solid. You have worked, invested, and stewarded. Strong, sharp, solid.

Yet, without fail, a time comes for each and every one of us where we feel like we are falling from what we once were, from where we once were. The truth is, being strong, educated and experienced… all of these fail us at some point. Your body doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. An injury or age sets in. Education isn’t enough, and you can’t figure out why. Your usual routine or equation no longer works. The decisions of others or your own blind spots shake your financial stability.

There comes a time where anything temporal reveals its finite nature. What excelled in that season, works no longer. Though it may feel like the bottom is falling out beneath you, there is good news: “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him” (Nahum‬ ‭1:7).

It turns out, your strength doesn’t lie in the gym or grocery store. Your favor doesn’t come from your discipline, earthy effort or I.Q. Your stability doesn’t come through your dexterity with accounting. It turns out that investing your trust in the Lord – the good, sovereign king – is what will help you, will catch you, when trouble comes.

If your usual elements of stability are feeling shaken and you are feeling weak, insecure or unstable, it has or will happen to us all on this side of heaven. Yet, there is good news: When you put your trust in God, you can know with confidence that you are stronger than you have ever been. Though you may feel like a mouse, and maybe for the first time, you are as mighty as the God within you, and He is enormous.

Invite God into your life, into every area of your life. Invest your trust in Him. Lay all you have at His feet – your weakness, your fear, and insecurity. Tell Him you trust Him. Though it feels counterintuitive in this world that sold us “self-made,” you will see that you have never been stronger, more secure, more solid or more fulfilled than when you give it all up and surrender it to God.

When you surrender it all to Him, stripping yourself down from what the world offered, you are now open to supernatural strength, and supernatural trumps the very best you can attain on this earth in your prime. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

When you lay it all down – your strength, your intelligence, your success, your ego, your fear, your pride, you will decrease. And when you decrease, that creates room for God to increase within you, giving strength to every area of your life – spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Oh, guys, surrender it. Trade it all in. I promise, you are trading up! “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him” (Nahum‬ ‭1:7). He is so, so good, and so, so near to those who trust Him.

People are acting strangely. It awakens emotion in us. We start thinking differently, speaking differently, maybe even acting differently. Fear has been a go-to emotion for me when smacked with unexpected change or impending doom. [Honest admission] Another has been cussing — one word in particular. (It rhymes with knit.)

Growing up with a grandma who charged a dollar for saying “shut up” or “hate,” I recognize the power of words. Being that I have never felt good after saying this word, I feel its wrong for me to do. After all, words are a gift, and my desire is to use words for good and God’s glory. Yet, under stress, with a web site down or a deal panning out poorly, I have excused it as a lesser of evils along the way, especially since it’s mostly been under my breath to myself.

A couple years ago, I decided it was time to break this habit. After all, it isn’t classy or productive, and I wouldn’t say it around my children, so I didn’t want to slip and say it around the other good people in my life. So I knew I had to get it out of my vocabulary altogether. To aid in the process, I told a few friends and prayed. And, honestly, God helped me refrain! Well, recently, I have noticed it slipping into my brain filter here or there, causing extra effort in the self-control department, leaving me wondering, what gives?! I thought I had tackled this!

I decided to ask God about this. He showed me I am letting garbage in. Garbage smells, and it impacts the things around it. And, let’s face it, garbage is EVERYWHERE right now! Therefore, if I want to preserve a clean mind, I must work extra to avoid becoming a garbage receptacle! I must change what goes into my mind to control what comes out of my mouth.

The Bible reveals the real danger in allowing sin to win out over the desires of the Holy Spirit. It says, “letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Whoa! I want life and peace, not death! I am bound and determined to see the Spirit win in my life.

To be sure I recognize the attributes of “the sinful nature” compared to those that characterize the Spirit, I cracked into Ephesians 5 and Galatians 5 to help spell it all out:

“Letting your sinful nature [sexual immorality, any kind of impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, or idolatry] control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit [love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control] control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:6).  

No wonder I have felt blech about this my whole life: Cussing is obscene and foolish. The Holy Spirit has been flashing red lights at me. If allowing garbage in is causing this unwanted habit, I must be more vigilant in protecting myself from negative influences.

Maybe you have never fought cussing, and maybe you think this is a stupid example. [Lol] What habit do you fight? Maybe you fight gossiping, overspending, codependency, binging, or overindulging. With all the garbage swirling around us, you may also notice unwanted thoughts, words or attitudes cropping up in you too.

There is a war going on within us between the Spirit, which we were given upon receiving Christ, and our sinful nature, which we were born into. As children of God, we are called to walk in the Spirit. Yet, we face internal opposition daily, as described by Paul in Galatians:  “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Galatians 5:17).

We must be aware of what we are allowing into our eyes and our ears, the windows to our souls. These things can be weapons against the enemy, if we fill ourselves with the Spirit, or they can be weapons used against us to manipulate our emotions, leading to sin and ultimately death, if we are not careful. It is imperative we remove the garbage, the distractions, from our lives to pursue the things of God.

What would you say is currently guiding your thinking? Is it your sinful nature or the Spirit? Look at the fruit of your thinking: Is it greed or is it faithfulness? Is it sex or is it self-control? Is it obscenity or is it goodness? If it’s greed, sex or obscenity, your sinful nature is working to guide you towards death. Whereas, when we allow the Holy Spirit to control us, we are guided to eternal life!

Once we recognize this war going on within us, it is time for an assessment to identify the influences – the weapons – being used against us. Join me! Let’s write down the things fueling our sinful nature to know what to cut out, and write down the things that bear fruit, guiding us towards abundant life.  

Self-assessment

• What are you filling your mind with?
  • What are you watching?
  • What are you listening to?
  • What are you reading?
• What emotions are welling up in you as a result?
  • Is it love, joy and goodness, leading to life?
  • Or, is it anger, greed or impurity, leading to death?
• What influences are causing you to think profanely instead of purely?
  • Is it the news, something you shouldn’t be watching, or are you obsessing over a deal or person that hurt you?
• What positive influences can you infuse into your life?
  • A few ideas might be the Word of God, uplifting messages, encouraging music, and healthy, loving relationships.

What we put into our eyes and ears influences what goes into our hearts and minds. What is in our hearts and minds dictates our walk. The direction we walk in dictates whether we have life or death. Let’s fight the good fight together to walk in the Spirit!

P.S. We all mess up and need Jesus! If you cuss, binge, overspend, or anything else, know that God loves you, and He is willing to help you. He is the one that creates the desire within you to change and actually causes the change in you. So, simply start by praying and asking for His help! We are in this together!

“True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor and long life” (Proverbs 22:4).

Humility used to be a hard word for me latch onto, sort of like “sabbatical.” (Huh?) It felt like a leadership buzzword, a core value, something people said to appear good and trustworthy but not a trait they would embody or actually walk in. (I know… God is healing my heart in areas where it has been jaded.)

Wipe away the leadership and missional quotes and get to the grit: What is humility really? It’s important we know what it is and what it looks like in our lives because we NEED humility to be saved, to be blessed and to prosper, as it says time and again in the Bible.

The Verse of the Day in my Bible app yesterday was Zephaniah 2:3, which says, “Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow His commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you – protect you from His anger on that day of destruction.” When we are humble, when we seek to do right, God will protect us.

I have always had a tender heart to do what is right. Have I always done it? Well, let’s not look to ages 18-to-20 to answer that, please. But I have always sought to do right even to the point of getting into the weeds to find the exact “right” way oftentimes. (In my humanness, I have not always accomplished it, of course.) But, this humility piece, what is it?

I wasn’t raise to sit down and be quiet. I was brought up and educated to present and perform – theater, dance, writing and a background in Broadcasting. Frankly, I didn’t think this idea of humility was a possibility for me. After all, I’m not shy or quiet. But, that’s not what humility is. Humility isn’t being shy or not using your creative abilities. God gave you gifts so you would use them.

Humility, by definition, is, “a modest or low view of one’s own importance.” Our minds can take this so many wrong ways – that we should feel bad about ourselves, that we must beat ourselves up and live in condemnation, or that we should give away everything we have to the point of our own detriment or sickness. This is not humility. Nope. That’s the devil trying to warp a beautiful, powerful thing by using it against us, as usual. (Snore.) I’ve done that in my 20s with eating issues. Those are just distractions from the enemy to get us off course.

I’m on a path to humility too, and here’s what I’m learning as I walk with the Lord: In my life, with the way my brain works, someone can’t just tell me to be humble. Humility is best shown by example as displayed through others’ behaviors, inspiring me to be better. Here’s what I mean:

Look at Jesus… You can imagine Him in your mind’s eye, or even as you have seen Him portrayed in The Chosen series, Jesus of Nazareth or through beautiful paintings, like this one that marked my childhood. It sat at the top of my grandparent’s stairs. I would walk into the foyer and look up to see the welcoming face of Jesus. He was looking straight at me with such a soft, kind face that, even without words, said, “I love you.”

For me, humility is personified through the eyes of Jesus. His eyes say it all: Kindness, gentleness, warmth, and love… that He sees me, welcomes me, puts me first, cares for me, and sacrifices for me because He loves me.

The kindness of Jesus teaches me what humility is. I see it. He shows me. He personifies it. He gives to me, nurtures me. He puts me first.

Humility is more than a word. It’s a heart, a spirit of sacrificing for others, putting others first. I see it in the eyes. It’s what first drew my attention to my husband. It’s what led me to follow my grandfather anywhere he went: Their eyes, their kindness, spoke, saying, “You matter to me!”

I have come to learn humility by watching others. I watch sweet, quiet, hard-working people I work with who give because of love. I learn humility by watching my step-dad serve others through his gifts to fix issues in their homes. It’s all because of love, not reward or accolade. It’s because of love.

Here’s what I’ve learned about humility in my journey so far:

1. Humility not only says but it shows, “you matter.” It shows you matter not because of what you can do for me or where you can get me but because of who you are.
2. Humility says, “my time is not more valuable than yours but you are more valuable than my time.”
3. Humility says, “life doesn’t owe me anything but I am blessed for everything God has chosen to give me.”
4. Humility says, “your thoughts, feelings, and opinions matter as much as mine.”
5. Humility makes room for others instead of just for one’s self.
6. Humility is a loving attitude yet it is so much more. It is a heart-posture.

The Lord has been teaching me humility. Yet, even as He teaches me, He does so with gentleness and love because Jesus is the personification of humility. And, thank you to the beautiful people in my life who have been teaching me humility by your love, gentleness and kindness too. I am so grateful for you.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So, as we grow in humility, dying to ourselves and our own selfish ambitions, we grow in grace. More grace abounds towards us. What a gift.

Thank you, Lord, for your loving correction and grace poured out for me, for us. I love you. Amen.

We seek blessing and prosperity. We seek good, contented lives full of health, length and advancement. Yet, amidst the poverty, the corruption, the desolation and the strife, it is easy to feel unsettled, scared and utterly confused, asking,Where is the road map? Where are the rules? What is the rhyme or reason to living in blessing rather than desolation?

The world proposed to know. The world has marketed us products and services, paradigms and mindsets. Some of these worked for a season. We got bigger houses, nicer cars, and lower interest rates. We “made” ourselves, and we felt proud. But, let’s face the music, folks: We have fallen flat on our faces.

Those old ways, those manufactured, merchandised ways to prosperity that swelled in the ’80s… well, those ways just aren’t working anymore. We need help. We need answers to what went wrong and how we get out of this mess. We need solutions. We need God.

The Bible provides answers. It provides solutions that have been tested and proven since the beginning of time across nations, ethnicities and social statuses. So, what does the Bible tell us about prosperous lives? The Bible shows us the way to prosperity.

“True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life” (Proverbs 22:4). God tells us, in order to be blessed, we need true humility.

God is God. The Bible tells us again and again that He does not change. He does what He says He will do. His very nature is true and constant. He can’t go back on His Word or His principles. He doesn’t change, but we change, folks. We change, and we need His help to change for the better.

God’s heart’s desire as a dad is to bless us and give us good things. Dads out there, you resonate with this, right? The reason you want blessing, you want answers, you want solutions is because you want to provide your family, your kids, with good things. That’s exactly what God wants for us and even more so, because His very nature is love – all love and no sin – so His love towards His kids, for us, has no limits.

Here is how Jesus describes God’s fatherly love and provision for us: “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:11-13).

It is God’s desire to bless us. So He shows us the way to blessing: In order to attain riches, honor and long life, we must have true humility and fear of the Lord.

Therefore, out of His love for us, God does what He needs to do in us, in our lives, by changing the posture of our hearts, to get us where we need to be to attain these blessings. God humbles us to bless us.

When God humbles you, let Him. He is not like man that He would break you out of selfish ambition as humans do. Do not believe He is out to hurt you or to take from you. He humbles us for our gain, to bless us and to give lavishly to us, even by adding to the length and goodness of our days. There is a blessed, prosperous life for us, yet we need to take a journey through humility to get to that blessing.

If you are on the journey of humility, hang on. Don’t let go of God. Cling to your heavenly father. Hold on tight, like a child in the arms of her father wading into the ocean. He won’t let you go of you, and the journey can actually be exhilarating.

Though this process may be filled with tears, it is also full of healing, purification and blessing. I have journeyed through the process of humility towards blessing. And, I want to encourage you in it, in these ways: Thank God for loving you enough to walk you to blessing, and resist the urge to grab for the world’s solutions. (Remember the world’s track record! Yikes.) The Lord’s record of loving and giving is proven.

Humility is a trip worth taking. Once you’ve journeyed through, don’t be surprised to see numerous areas of your life align in your favor, because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

tes·ti·mo·ny

• 1.a formal written or spoken statement, especially one given in a court of law. synonyms evidence, declaration, statement

In a court of law, a person’s testimony, their official statement, is paramount. It can mean the difference between imprisonment or freedom, life or death. 

The same is true spiritually. Our statement, our declaration, has the power to imprison us or to make us free. Our proclamation has the power to give us abundant life or to lead us to death. 

You see, the devil is our enemy. He has come to earth to kill, steal and destroy. The Bible calls him “the god of this age” and exposes the evil work he is doing to separate us from God. The Bible warns us, “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthinians 4:4). The Bible describes him as “the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). 

The enemy is active in the world. It is ridden with sin and darkness. When we go with the grain, with how society operates, tailoring our behaviors and actions to appease and please the loud voices of this world, we can become a victim to darkness. Going along with the ways of this world, we can become an accomplice to sin. 

Through complacency, the enemy blinds people from truth and the route to freedom. His goal is to keep people from seeing the light of Jesus and believing in Him, because the glory of Jesus breaks us FREE! If the enemy is effective at blinding any of us from the glory of Jesus, he can keep us imprisoned, locked in fear, anxiety, shame and people-pleasing, which is the fear of man, forever. We must not go with or give into the ways of the world. And, Christians, we should not be complacent about the enemy blinding those we love from knowing the truth about Jesus and the freedom He brings.

How do we fight back? It is imperative we confess with our mouths where we stand by saying who we serve. We take a stand against darkness by giving our statement, telling our story, and sharing our testimony that Jesus is the Lord of our lives. We will be saved by our testimony. 

The Bible says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).  

Our testimony is a weapon. What we speak, the words that come from our mouths are a proclamation of where we stand. If we stand here, we don’t stand there. When we proclaim that we stand for Jesus, we declare that we stand against the enemy and the evil of this age. 

With Jesus, we will never be put to shame. “As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.^” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:11-13). 

With Jesus, we are cared for. “Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:10a).

With Jesus, we receive abundant life, both here on earth and for eternity. Jesus tells us, “a thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10b).

Our words declare our stance, and our stance dictates our outcome. There is power in our story. We must share it. We must share the story of our savior, Jesus Christ, how He changed the world and how He changed our lives. This means we share where we were and how far we’ve come, only because of God, only because of the salvation that comes from Jesus. In doing so, we take a spiritual stance and we paint a picture for others, a map, of how they can find freedom too!

Sometimes we don’t want to tell our story. It might bring us back to a painful place, a remembrance that we were weak — that apart from Him, weare weak. While the enemy uses our weaknesses to taunt us, God, in His infinite fatherly love, turns our weaknesses into power in our favor. Paul speaks of this very thing in the Bible, “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

God is not repelled by our weaknesses. They activate His supernatural power in our lives to create breakthrough that we can boast about that can draw others to His abundant way of living. In the Kingdom of God, we actually boast about our weaknesses to show the power of Christ at work in our lives! How cool!

There is power in our words. What we say, what we claim, what we declare and what we confess will dictate our outcome. [This reminds me not to waste my words on judging, gossiping about our condemning others! I want to make my words count towards abundance in my life and in the lives of others.]

The book of Revelation reminds us that this is a spiritual and shows us how the enemy, the accuser, is cast out: “They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness” (Revelation 12:11).

Do you sense the presence of evil in our culture? Despite what the enemy has been trying to tell you, you aren’t alone, and you aren’t powerless. I encourage you to grab ahold of the power of God that protects you, and helps others find freedom, by declaring where you stand. Speak out. Share your testimony!

Each of us needs wisdom. It feels like we need an extra measure of it in this climate to wade through fact and fiction, to decipher good from evil. We need wisdom on who to listen to, as well as to know from whom we should protect our hearts and minds.

We need wisdom on how to support the people we love through their difficulties, through uncertainty. We need wisdom on how to plan for our futures and how to get our finances in order. We need wisdom in helping our children navigate these times emotionally, and wisdom on their educations moving forward.

We need help making decisions on things that used to be basic, like if we should leave our house, which store to go to and at what time. We need help getting our businesses and organizations back on track. We need wisdom on how, when and what to communicate, to know when to open our mouths and when to shut them. We need wisdom to know when to activate and when to be still. We need help, and we need wisdom, in every area of our lives from the big to the small.

God has wisdom available for us. The Bible, God’s love letter to us, tells us, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5).

God does not want us to rely on what we know, what we perceive in our own emotion, or on what we hear from the emotion and hurt of others. He wants us to rely on Him.

Once the Bible encourages us to go to God for wisdom, it is clear about the posture of our hearts, if we want to gain it. “But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6).

I have a tough assertion, friends: Unless it is clear that it comes from the heart of Jesus, spoken directly out of or alignment with the Bible, you can’t trust the source. It’s tainted by sin. Even the most well-meaning of sources is human with personal biases. Each of us must measure our opinions against what the Bible says. We must also measure what others say against the Word before we imbibe it, before we drink it in.

Financial planning teaches us to diversify. Business plans teach us to diversify. In the world, we have learned that it is unwise to put all of our eggs into one basket. However, if we want real, true revelation – the kind that supplies us with the answers we need to make the important decisions at hand – we need our minds, hearts and emotions unified on one thing: Jesus. (The Bible tells us the Word, the Bible, was made flesh through Jesus. The words lept off of the page and dwelled among us in the form of Jesus, here on earth.)

In the book of James, we are told, if we want wisdom, our faith must be in God alone. We can’t step up to the prayer room and cast one vote at the foot of the cross then turn on talk radio, read the CDC guidelines, look at our S And P 100 Stocks, then tune into our emotions to compile our strategy for wise living. We have only one hope: God alone.

If you feel “unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind,” that’s because you have – we have – been putting our hope in a diverse portfolio. If we expect to get the wisdom we desire to make the decisions at hand, big and small, we must put all of our eggs into one basket. We must put our faith in God alone, or we won’t get wisdom. We’ll get tossed around.

I need wisdom. Too many important decisions hang in the balance to diversify my portfolio just because “that’s how I do things.” Nope. It’s time to scrap that way of thinking. Too many people’s lives are impacted by mine. I need real wisdom. I will put my hope in God alone. He is our only chance, our only hope, and His track record is proven!

God, I need wisdom. We need wisdom. You are generous. Your hand is extended to give it freely. I put my faith in you alone. You alone save. I repent for putting any faith in myself. I repent for looking to others to answer my questions or supply my needs when you are in full supply with arms wide open.

Jesus, I confess the only way to the Father, the only way to be saved from this mess of sin, the only truth there is, the only way to live, the way to abundance, is through you. So I come to you. I put my faith in you alone. I need you. We need you!

God, Please help us regulate our emotions. Please help us regulate our attention spans. I desire to turn the dial down on everything else because I want to put my faith only in your words and your ways. You are more than enough for me, Lord. Please help me from being tossed around with the waves of the world but renew my mind, making it more like yours. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.